It’s the gift that keeps on giving, only the Raptors aren’t waiting for Christmas to open it.

In fact this gift came early in September, and for the young players working out this summer en masse even a little earlier, as team president Masai Ujiri demanded a change in the way the team went about its business.

The basketball would be shared, Ujiri declared, no exceptions.

That gift of a declaration has spawned games like Tuesday’s when the Raptors successfully found the bottom of the basket with 44 made field goals, 30 of those assisted on.

It marked the 10th time through 22 games that the Raptors have surpassed the 25 assist mark in a game, something they did just nine times in all 82 games a year ago.

Not only is it a prettier form of the game, it has a slew of other benefits.

More passing means more people involved, which tends to make for a much more satisfied locker room.

Look, it’s not like anyone was complaining when the Raptors were winning primarily on the superior individual games of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. Winning tends to keep discontent at bay.

But you go through the locker room these days and while it’s still very much the room of DeRozan and Lowry you can go to any stall that houses a rotation player and find a guy who has made substantial contributions.

That type of inclusion breeds happiness which, in a winning locker room, is contagious.

That 22 games into this grand experiment a more free flowing offence full of movement and ball sharing has already taken hold is a testament to the players in that locker room, management that demanded it and a coaching staff that has installed it.

This fundamental change in the offensive approach is already paying dividends but the hope is the biggest payoff will come in the playoffs.

Assuming the buy-in, which appears to be at 100% right now, continues throughout the year, the Raptors are going to be a much tougher team to contend with in the playoffs when defences lock in and take opponents’ top weapons away from them.

Toronto has had success in the past few years of playoffs to an extent, but when teams were able to take Lowry and DeRozan off their games, it became a real struggle for the Raptors.

It’s easier to defend a team that relies on two guys than it is to defend a team in which any one on any night can be the difference and that is what we are finding about this team.

DeRozan and Lowry are still first and second in team scoring but behind them are players that touch the ball and score on a regular basis.

“I think it makes it a lot easier which makes it a lot more fun,” DeRozan said of the emphasis on ball movement. “Everybody gets a chance to touch the ball, you don’t necessarily have to work so hard and it’s fun. Everybody gets a feel for the ball, everybody gets to make decisions.”

The approach also should keep both Lowry and DeRozan fresher. It’s not a secret that one of Dwane Casey’s stated goals this year is to get the minutes his two leaders are playing down by a significant margin. Lowry is down almost five minutes a game from a year ago while DeRozan, who was already playing two minutes less than Lowry a year ago, is down a minute a night on his 2016/17 totals.

And finally there’s the ever-present look to the future. How are the Raptors setting themselves up to be a better team down the road?

On that front, the share-the-ball edict has pushed the development cycle up to hyper speed. The young players on this team aren’t just playing more minutes — a product of the off-season veteran purging for salary cap purposes — they are playing meaningful and involved minutes.

Guys like rookie OG Anunoby isn’t just in the starting five, he’s out there spreading the floor and like he did on Tuesday, raining threes with a career high four in five nights.

Jakob Poeltl isn’t just running the floor and setting screens, he’s finishing pick and rolls contributing double-digit scoring nights like he has had in three of the past four games.

“It’s not like KLow (Lowry) and Deebo (DeRozan) are the only guys scoring on our team,” Poeltl said. “Everybody is scoring. We are moving the ball and it’s fun to play that way. Especially with us in that second unit. We keep talking about it. We keep moving the ball. We try and play together. It’s not the same person scoring 10, 15 or 20 points every night. It’s always somebody else and I think that shows that we really do play that (sharing the ball) way.”

Dwane Casey likes what he has seen to date.

“Guys will work harder when they understand the ball is going to swing to them,” he said. “Shot expectations, pass expectations. No disrespect to the way we played last year but this year there’s freedom of movement, the ball’s moving from side to side, guys are moving to get open, doing their work early on the weak side to create a good shot opportunity. That’s something guys have done a good job of.”

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